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Topic: Gothic Space Horror (Read 66547 times)

Taget looked up from his latest bulb. The docking chimes had awoken him from his current stupor. Docking chimes were one of those background noises to station life, but if you know what you were listening for they were useful. His companion was still jabbering with the barkeep after all this time.

He pulled out his PADD. Clumsily he punched a few buttons. Connecting into the network he checked the dock flow. Sure enough his bucket was here.

He gave a long sigh. He nudged his companion, who looked at hims quizzically. He shouldered his gear sack and shuffled out of the bar.

There was a bustle of activity as the Ballard was anchored down into the dock. Crewmen in powersuits wrangled the foot thick umbilical cables to the ship,lockign them into the correct ports, providing the ship with power, recycling her water supply, and hooking her up to the station oxygen supply. A large crawler deployed with a crew of four suits guiding it. It towed a mesh steel hose large enough for a man to slide through with ease. There was a physical vibration as the hose was locked down to the fueling port.

Anyone standing close to a viewer could see the hose stiffen, and flakes of frozen oxygen and other volatile gases shudder free from the hose as the liquid hydrogen fuel was pumped into the Ballys fuel tanks.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there will be a 12 hour shoreleave for those interested in taking it. I would suggest taking it, since this is the last civilization we are likely to see for a while." the captain said into the intercomm.

Micky unclipped her harnass and stood up out of her chair. "Thank you Captain." She then left the bridge. Micky stopped briefly at her quarters, she grabbed her Cred Card and locked down her gear. She made her way out into the corridor, setting her wrist band for 6 hours. After it went off she would return to the Bally and spend the rest of that time taking a nice long 6 hour nap. No body wanted a pilot to fall asleep at the wheel. Micky made a brief lap around the corridors of the ship seeing who she might run into before leaving the ship.

Hue was relieved to get out of the ship even if it was just onto another space platform. With a twelve hour leave Hue decided to hangout with Micky maybe trade a few wars and fine cigars.

He caught up to her just as she was finishing a lap arpund the ship, "Hey, what do you say we c-drop out of here and get a few beers at a bar around here, do you know Poker?"

C-drop or combat drop was the Marine word for descending or exiting the ship, because Marines most often left on a shuttle that took the most extreme entrance vector it could. It was quoted as high speed on a very, very bad road.

The shuttle taxi was almost as battered and old as Tybee station. It glided to a gentle stop against the orbital section of Tybee station, as opposed to the moonside section of Tybee station. A few crewmen dismebarked, two carried a huge container of O2 scrubbers, enough to replace all of the scrubbers on the ship, without depleting the main stock.

It brought mostly maintainence personel, but it also would bring the replacement crewmen either on the first trip, or the return from shoreleave trip. The pilot tapped the intercomm.

"Station to planet shuttle docked, will be departing for Moonbase Tybee is thirty minutes, repeat thirty minutes." The pilot sat back in his seat, and opened a food pouch. Yuck...liquified pseudo-turkey and dressing. He made a face and tried to remember the last time he ate real food instead of the synthesized garbage he ate all the time now.

Ao cracked his knuckles in nervousness, pacing down one of the Ballard's dull plasteel corridors. The soft buzz of the various power lines and tubes along the walls and ceilings grated on his nerves. He had never liked that sound.He stopped, turned, glanced down the passage, illuminated by virucidal lightstrips.With a small twitch, Ao shook his head and chuckled. What was wrong with him? Jumping at shadows.He just had a bad feeling, that was it. It was just nerves. Nothing was going to go wrong. He would go out there, haul back the ship, and, bang, instant cash.So why couldn't he rid himself of this foreboding?

A short woman with curly dark hair and the heavy tread of an Earther approached him, she wore a faint smile, but looked tired. The ensignia on her shoulder marked her as one of the ranking officers on the ship, 2nd in command likely. Oddly enough, the red cross also marked her as medical personel.

"You must be one of our new arrivals...OW..." she tried to pronounce his name correctly. Her accent marked her as an American, only slightly less obnoxious than than a Russo-Martian, or one of the imperialistic French Acadians who settled most of Europa.

"I am Lt. Marney, chief medical officer, and second in command of the Bally. I can show you to your quarters, and then we can see about getting your medical information." she said in a pleasant but business like manner.

"Well, I have to say that you seem to be quite comfortable on a ship, Lunar?" she asked as she walked him first to the medbay. She handled the various tests quickly and efficiently, her manner brisk but not rude.

After the rather awkward examination, she walked him back through the ship to where the crew berths were. It took his breath for a moment. The ship had single occupancy cabins for the crew members, complete with a water sink, and a spacious locker at the foot of the bed. There was even a small holoprojector in the wall that would play whatever TriD discs he had on him.

"This is your room, and you have been assigned to the Ashigo, one of the salvage shuttles." she said, showing him the various functions and features of the room.

"The mess serves whatever food you can cook yourself, and their is a well equiped lounge, there is excercise equipment, a larger holoplayer, and some other stuff for entertainment." She said.

"I suppose you have seen better? Or does this seem too soft for you?" Lt. Marney asked Taget, the good humor evaporating from her voice.

"It is easy to forget that not every spacer is as jaded as some fo us, and to some people a room this large is bigger than their homes." she said with a little edge to her voice. Once one of the greatest military powers before the formation of Unified Earth, America had fallen from preeminence. Many cities were already overcrowded and the depletion of the economy made conditions worse.

Many families were driven into abject poverty, and forced to surrended their unpaid for vehicles, and lost their homes. Soon massive government tenament projects were sponsored to deal with the burgeoning unemployment and homelessness rates.

The new powers subsidized much of the construction, France, Germany, and China and Indo-Japan purchased huge sections of the county. Many Americans, even though the country was formally dissolved during the Unification, were still bitter about the fall of their country.

"A c-drop out of here sounds pretty good right now Hue. Beer sounds good too. Dont know poker though. But I am willing to learn." She smiled at him. "Just as long as you dont try to cheat me." She followed him off of the ship. "SO who is buying the first round of drinks?"

"Well," Hue said mischeviously pulling an old deck from his pocket, "I was gonna let the cards decide but I'll get the first rounf let's say adn we'll see what happens from there."

A short time later the two were in a small bar in the moonside, the place was small but crowded. Always a good sign that there was good drinkin there. Hue had brought over a local ale it was pretty good based on some of the piss Hue had drunk in his time. He brought at the old deck of calds, "Well poker is a five card hand game where you try to get the best combination of cards tob eat your opponent. You got a two pair which just a pair of cards of the same face or number." Hue held up a pair of jacks.

"The next is three pair and four pair. A small straight which is a sequence of four cards in order of any suit. Then a full house which is a two pair and a three pair. A large straight same thing but five cards. A Flush which is large straight but all the same suit, and a royal flush which is the samething but all the cards range from 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace. You can lay down 1 to 5 cards once and pick up the same number."

Hue dealt the cards with a tell tale look that said let the games begin..

Micky nodded. She listened to him tell her about the game. Though that slightly confused look remained.The first two hands had just been lucky. She drank the ale slowly. She grinned and him and then gave him alittle wink. Was her third hand just as lucky as the first two or was she just toying with him? "So...what have you been doing since Diamunde?"

"I stayed on for another deployment after Diamunde, it was tracking down some lost scientist, they had been wiped out by a flesh eating plague." The way he spoke obviously said there had been more than a simple flesh eating plague but that here wasn't the place to talk. "I got out after that, I lost alot of good friends at Diamunde, I've been in the proavte sector for about a year or so I guess now. Mostly been working on sea going ships, this is the first space job I've taken sine a year and a half ago." Amas glanced at his cards he had, an ace of spades, a 3 diamonds, the ace of hearts, the eight of hearts, and the eight of clubs. He laid down the three and drew another card.

"So what have you been doing since Diamunde?" Amas glanced at his next card, and gave a slight smile. The card he drew was the eight of spades, he held a full house.

Micky frowned slightly. Her cards...were duds. Nothing good in them. "Spent most of my time pilotting the Cataran. Mercenary work mostly. The occassional deep space mission." She shrugged. "Nothing special." Micky folded up her hand and placed it face down on the table. "I've got nothing." She finished her ale. "So...tell me more about yourself. I mean we are going to be spending the next few months together. It's nice to know about who I am traveling with."

Hue grinned, "Full house but we're only playing for fun anyways. Me? Well theres been a Long in the military ever since there's been a military. I don't really remember the story but my great-great grandfather can't remember how many generations moved to old America during the WWII, he was Japanese and had a rough time of it here but adventually once the buisness of the war settled down he wass able to settle down in Seattle, Washington, up in the northwestern region below old Canada. Since then I still have family there today who live there today. Two sisters who have big families but the house is pretty big and fits them both. I was pretty board with life on Earth, probaly read a good too many war novels between Earth and the colonies. So I signed up for the Marine Corps, I was a pretty good shot, I took a couple other tests and Mother Corps filed me as a combat medic. I was stationed at Thorsfini World for two years out at the edge of UEC space. I served two tours on an amphibous assault ship. Then Diaumunde broke out." Hue had a far off look in his eyes, he shifted a little.

"So here I am thirty two years old, hopefully with the money I make form this... Well not a good idea to make plans with money you don't have yet, so tell me about your self. I'm mighty interested how a Raptorjock becomes the pilot for a bucket like the Ballard."

Captain Gildenstern sat alone on the bridge of the Ballard. The ship was quiet, the engines offline, and the reactor core on standby power. There were a few lights burning on the various control panels, but the majority of the washed out blue light came from a single projector. It was rare the bank of projectors was turned off, it seemed strange to see the cold steel bulkheads the were usually covered by floating maps, systems diagrams and projected images from hull mounted cameras.

A young girl, perhaps seven or eight played, chasing a brightly colored ball. She was blonde headed, and obviously related to the captain. The grainy nature of the projection betrayed its age. The data reel might be twenty ot thirty years old, predating the current generation of TriD projectors by at least a decade.

"It seems life is not without a sense of irony." he said aloud, his voice sounding strangly metallic and alien in the iron womb of the bridge. Most of the crew was away on Europa, enjoying what human contact and cheap beer they could afford before pushing off into the soul crushing darkness beyond Jupiter.

Most people assumed that traveling to the edge of the solar system was safer than taking the jaunt through dimensional space to another star. They were wrong. Deep missions beyond Jupiter had poor success rates, most turned back, and no type mission had more missing ships, more lost crews.

He felt the weight of the gun in his shoulder holster, an archaic weapon of blued steel, powerful.

"RaptorJock" Micky grinned. She still found that word amusing. "Well you sign up for what ever pilot job that comes you way during peaceful times. Otherwise, you dont eat." She shrugged. "Started piloting at a pretty young age. I dont like to have my feet on the ground for too long." Micky shifted in her seat. She looked at the cards she had left on the table. " I havent actually been down on Earth in a couple of years. The gravity feels all wrong." Micky sighed. "Hue, how do you feel about the colonies?" She looked up at him.

Hue let out a small sigh, "I think it's the next Diamunde, there whats? Fifeteen, maybe twenty super stations in the inner rim not to mention little outposts like these. Why else would the UEC be testing warships? Their loosing the hold on the Freedom Party, it's only a matter of time. The colonies for one think Earthers are a lot of barbrians, it's unnerving. I'm only conpiring but have you been to P3X9 lately? Or ant of the others either? They've all got immigration acts against planetary citizens, have you ever tried to live in one when you grew up on a planet like Earth, or Elneal? Warships that can travel faster than light making test runs in deep space? I don't really know but the next decade or two is going to see alot of change. Something has too."

With that he produced a big Fidel cigar, "These are horrible for ya but d**n, every man's got a vice or two." He clipped and let it, then offered one to Micky.

Micky shook her head, "Thank you but no. I dont smoke." She was thinking about what he had said. "Not everyone in the colonies think Earthers are barbarians." She sighed. "Your right about it becomming the next Diamunde. Space born and planetary citizen dont communicate. And yes I have been to P3X9 lately. Things have gotten worse there. I was there two years ago." She shrugged. "Eventually it's going to come to war. And most likely it will start in P3X9. Neither the space born or planetary citizens like each other. But most likely the space born citizens of P3X9 will fire the first shot. Next thing you know, all space born on Earth are arrested and locked into quaratine, while every planetary citizen in the colonies goes through the same thing or ejected out into space. Either way, things are going to get ugly." Micky ordered them a fresh round of drinks. She took a sip of her beer. "After this mission, I'm done. If the money off of this is good as it sounds like, I am buying my own ship and just picking a direction." Truth was that she could already afford her own ship and then some. She enjoyed being a pilot and the mission had sounded interesting. She was going to quit after leaving the Cataran. But sometimes you just want one more round before it's over."What do you think of the space born citizens? I mean you told me what they think of planetary citizens. You must have some opinion about them. I've been out in space piloting too long to know what Earthers say about the colonies."

"I couldnt help but overhear your comments." Lt. Marney said, her uniform replaced with civvies. Surprisingly she held a bulb of beer in her hand, her hair lat down. "My ex-husband and son live on P3X9, I hear from Josh, my son, on occassion. He tells me things and I worry, I worry alot."

"The thought of the UE building honest to god warships scares me. I've seen what the UE can do when it decides too." she said, "I had family living in Old New York before the UE dropped a bomb on it. My father was a jarhead, a marine during the invasion of the east coast..." she said. The UE campaign to take the east coast of the United States went down in the history books as one of the most bloody, and costly victories in UE history, and one of the most savage battles in world history.

"It is going to happen again." she said, draining the bulb with a single drink. "Unless the colonies can present a united front, they will fall, one after another. Look at the Sol system, the UE owns the Lunar colonies, and all of the Jovian colonies. Only Mars remains technically free, but we all know where they will turn when the UE drops the boot on them." she said with a note of bitterness.

Micky looked up at Lt. Marney. "Have a seat Lt. Marney." She cast a glance to Hue, hoping he wouldnt mind the extra company. "What sector on P3X9 do they live in?" Micky gathered the cards and gave them a shuffle. She took another drink of beer. Watching both Hue and Lt. Marney now.

"Well both are good by me, during Diamunde things were so jumbled up half the people in my unit were from planets around the system half from colonies. Their the same people but the politicians in the UE and in the colonies abroad have been itching to take something. Especially now that the UE holds a couple colonies." Amas took a dreg of the Fidel enjoying the pleasant smell and sense of calm he felt, he offered one to Lt. Marney.

"Well I think your right about P3X9 taking the first shot but that'd only be if they found about the UE's warship program here. I've heard some interesting stuff coming out of there too. Especially black market wise, there's stuff in coming out of there that isn't even a year or two old. I bet the UE steaming about their lost warship because it's a first strike weapon against a colony like P3X9. I don't about you guys but some of the holo hull it looked like they could put some pretty heavy weapon plaforms on that bird."

"My sister Ping said some strange stuff about UE internal affairs guys hauling off spacers in major cities. There's been a couple riots in Seattle too, that's always been a pretty liberal, but after what the UE did to Old New York and San Diego I don't think they'd get to violent." Amas paused, a couple of the most weird looking thugs and punks came in through the door, but they didn't seem to be looking for any fights and settled at the bar. Amas was glad he brought his Sunjet this old station got pretty shady on some of the levels farther from the main docking collars and bays.